


Days of Change

by sg_wonderland



Series: Days series [14]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-18 21:11:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8176208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_wonderland/pseuds/sg_wonderland
Summary: Daniel makes a new friend.





	

I’m glad they gave me this time to regroup, gather my thoughts. This has been like a whirlwind ride ever since I got the call to report to Cheyenne Mountain for my newest posting. I can’t sit; find myself walking to the window again and again to stare at a big ring of stone. Yeah, just a plain old ring that supposedly transports you to other planets. I walk back over and sink into a seat, trying to get my head around this.

Evidently, this posting will be out of this world. Literally.

I spring to my feet when I hear feet clomping up the metal steps, stiffening my spine, expecting my new commanding officer.

In surprise, I look down at the approaching figure. And down and down. I relax when I realize it’s someone’s kid.

“Hi.” I offer. He’s a mighty cute little thing, maybe four or five years old. With inquisitively bright blue eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses, honey colored hair that might have been combed once or twice in his lifetime, he is dressed in what I think of as the little kid uniform, T-shirt, jeans, sneakers. Evidently, someone has a wicked sense of humor, because the neatly pressed T-shirt proclaims that he’s the property of the US Air Force. The jeans are rigidly creased and the sneakers are scrupulously white and obviously new.

“Hi,” he grins back at me, making his dimples dance. “Have you seen Jack?”

“Jack?”

“O’Neill?”

“Ahh. I was actually waiting for him. Wanna keep me company?”

“Sure.” He scrambles up on one of the chairs and then climbs up on the table, settling down to swing his sneakers. “Who are you?”

“Cameron Mitchell.” I reach over to shake his hand.

“Daniel Jackson.”

Ah, now it’s all starting to make sense. The missing member of SG-1, although I didn’t know the guy had kids. “So not an O’Neill?”

“I live with Jack.” He says simply.

I lean back in my chair; I’ve always found kids to be quite relaxing, since my older sisters have presented me with a half dozen or so nieces and nephews. “So I’m guessing you run the place here?”

His eyes light with mischief. “General Hammond says I probably will in a couple of years.”

“Of that, I have no doubt. The question is, do you want to?”

“I’m only six,” he confides with an easy charm. “I think I have time to decide what I want to be when I grow up.”

“I don’t know; if you want to get into a good school, you need to start early.” I point out with a straight face.

He seems to consider this seriously, but before he can comment, more footsteps ring on the stairs. I’m standing stiffly at attention when Colonel O’Neill and General Hammond enter. 

“As you were, Colonel Mitchell. Nice to see you, Daniel.” The general deftly scoops him off the table and deposits him on the floor, evidently not at all surprised to see him seated where he was and not on a chair.

“Nice to see you, too, General. How are you feeling? Jack said you had a big headache today.”

“I do, son,” he chuckles. “And it has Jack O’Neill written all over it. We need to talk to Colonel Mitchell here, why don’t you run along and see what Major Carter’s up to?”

“Okay,” he scampers toward the stairs, then makes an abrupt turn. “Colonel Mitchell, nice to meet you.”

I stand to shake his hand. “Likewise, Daniel Jackson.”

He rolls his eyes. “You sound like Teal’c.”

*

This has been the wildest ride of my entire life. Even counting those ten days in Mexico with Julie Beckley. In the past six weeks, I’ve learned a whole new vocabulary. Stargate. Wormhole. Off-world. Zats and ribbon devices and staff weapons. It’s enough to give a guy a headache. 

And today is enough to give me yet another headache. I am expected at O’Neill’s house for an off-base get together. It’s not that I don’t do these kind of things; hell, I’m from the South, we break bread if someone’s wed or dead. 

O’Neill seems to be pretty much of a hard-ass, so I don’t expect the warmest of welcomes from him. Carter, I liked from the start; pity about that fraternization rule. Teal’c, I still don’t get; he’s said maybe a total of six words to me since I met him.

My only hope is that the kid will be there and I’ll have someone to play with.

*

Must be my lucky day. I find O’Neill’s house with no problem and when the door swings open, I spy my little friend standing there. “Hey, Daniel, what gives?”

“Colonel Mitchell, can I ask you a question?” He shuts the door firmly behind me and leads me down into the living room.

“Only if you call me Cam.”

“Don’t you think I’m old enough to go to the park by myself?”

I see all kinds of traps just waiting to be sprung so I set my shoulders and tell him the truth. “No, I don’t. Sorry, buddy, but I think six is too young to go anywhere by yourself.”

His mouth curls into a pout. “Grownups just don’t get it.”

I hunch down in front of him. “Actually, we do get it, but it’s also our job to protect you, until you get old enough to look after yourself.” He drops his head and I lightly tap his chin up so that he is forced to look me in the eye. “Hey, don’t ask questions if you’re not prepared to hear the answer.”

“That’s almost exactly what I said.” We both look up to see O’Neill standing in the doorway. “Daniel, pleading your case to others is not going to change my mind. In fact, it might end in you spending some more quality time alone in your room.”

His expression is still quite stormy while O’Neill patiently looks at him. I wonder which one of them is going to break first and if I should find a convenient exit. Finally, Daniel sighs hugely, apologizes for drawing me into their argument and stomps up the stairs. O’Neill grins at the inevitable door slam. “Mitchell, have a seat, want a beer?”

“Sure, sounds good.” I wander around the spacious living room, stopping to look at the pictures on the mantel. Most of them are either Daniel or SG-1; I pick up an obviously recent school picture to peer at it. 

The kid’s the unofficial reason I ended up here. I gathered from the base scuttlebutt that O’Neill wants to cut back on his gate travel and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the main reason is upstairs planning to take over the world. So I’m training on SG-1 after which Sam will probably take command when O’Neill advances into an advisory/training position and I’ll hopefully move on to my own team.

“Here you go.”

“Thanks.” I take the beer before carefully replacing the photograph. “He sure looks like his father.”

“Yes, he does.” He’s silently stares at the picture for a few minutes. “He thinks I’m over-protective.”

I can’t even imagine trying to raise a kid safely in this environment. It’s quite apparent that this kid is extremely important to the Air Force and the entire Stargate program. Keeping him safe and happy would be the finest way to honor the memory of a lost father. “I think it would be hard for any six-year-old to understand what kidnapping is.”

He shoots me a frown as I sit opposite him and wonder where the hell everyone else is. Just as I’m about to ask, Daniel comes strolling back in and drapes himself across O’Neill’s lap. “You okay?” He asks, his hand gently trailing down the kid’s spine.

“Yeah,” his voice is muffled. “I just wanted to go to the park.”

“And I can take you to the park tomorrow. But you’re not going by yourself, understood?”

A huge sigh emanates from a small body. “Yes, I understand.” He clambers around until he’s on O’Neill’s knees instead of across them, lying back against his chest, his fingers idly playing with the beer bottle. “Where’s Sam and Teal’c?”

“Sam’s running a little late, she said something about a cake.”

A satisfied smirk fills the crafty face he tilts straight upward, trying to see O’Neill’s expression. “You owe me fifty bucks.”

“Do not.” O’Neill nudges him slightly.

Daniel twists around to face him; this is obviously an old routine for them. “Do, too.”

“If and when Carter shows up here with a home-made chocolate cake, then we’ll discuss that. And Teal’c should be here..” The doorbell rings. “Right now.”

He slides down and runs up the stairs. There, for a brief moment, O’Neill’s face is unguarded as he watches the child dash to answer the door. And I realize he just didn’t take this kid in because he had to, because he had nowhere else to go. He loves this child as if he were his own. I take a long drink before setting the bottle down and rising. “You flyboys will bet on anything.”

He grins back at me, the serious moment broken. “Ain’t it the truth?”

*

All in all, I’d call it a good day. O’Neill unbent just a little, Teal’c actually addressed an entire sentence to me, the general came by for awhile, Carter and I made a date to ride bikes and Daniel left me out of the ongoing disagreement about his newfound maturity.

When I left, Carter and O’Neill were engaged in a heated debate about who had left the most hearts broken in their wake, Teal’c and Daniel were surfing the ‘Net for something the little scamp was trying to get someone to buy for him. I give him a better than fifty-fifty chance of succeeding.


End file.
